Cooperative Children's Book Center Choice

Dorothy Canfield Fisher Children's Book Award (Vermont)

ALA Best Fiction for Young Adults

ALA Booklist Editors' Choice

Horn Book Fanfare

New York Public Library Stuff for the Teen Age

ALA Notable Children's Book

New York Public Library's "One Hundred Titles for Reading and Sharing"

Hugo Award

Kirkus Reviews Best Children's Book

Newbery Medal

Boston Globe-Horn Book Award Honor Book

About the Book

In this Newbery Medal-winning novel, Bod is an unusual boy who inhabits an unusual place—he's the only living resident of a graveyard. Raised from infancy by the ghosts, werewolves, and other cemetery denizens, Bod has learned the antiquated customs of his guardians' time as well as their ghostly teachings—such as the ability to Fade so mere mortals cannot see him.

Can a boy raised by ghosts face the wonders and terrors of the worlds of both the living and the dead? And then there are being such as ghouls that aren't really one thing or the other.

The Graveyard Book won the Newbery Medal and the Carnegie Medal and is a Hugo Award Winner for Best Novel.

Supports the Common Core State Standards

Book Description

Nobody Owens, known to his friends as Bod, is a normal boy.

He would be completely normal if he didn't live in a sprawling graveyard, being raised and educated by ghosts, with a solitary guardian who belongs to neither the world of the living nor of the dead.

There are dangers and adventures in the graveyard for a boy-an ancient Indigo Man beneath the hill, a gateway to a desert leading to an abandoned city of ghouls, the strange and terrible menace of the Sleer.

But if Bod leaves the graveyard, then he will come under attack from the man Jack—who has already killed Bod's family. . . .

Beloved master storyteller Neil Gaiman returns with a luminous new novel for the audience that embraced his New York Times bestselling modern classic Coraline. Magical, terrifying, and filled with breathtaking adventures, the graveyard book is sure to enthrall readers of all ages.

Educator and Librarian Resources

Critical Praise

“THE GRAVEYARD BOOK, by turns exciting and witty, sinister and tender, shows Gaiman at the top of his form. In this novel of wonder, Neil Gaiman follows in the footsteps of long-ago storytellers, weaving a tale of unforgettable enchantment.” — New York Times Book Review

“Wistful, witty, wiseand creepy. This needs to be read by anyone who is or has ever been a child.” — Kirkus Reviews (starred review)

“This is an utterly captivating tale that is cleverly told through an entertaining cast of ghostly characters. There is plenty of darkness, but the novel’s ultimate message is strong and life affirming….this is a rich story with broad appeal. ” — Booklist (starred review)

“Lucid, evocative prose and dark fairy-tale motifs imbue the story with a dreamlike quality. …this ghost-story-cum-coming-of-age-novel as readable as it is accomplished.” — Horn Book (starred review)

“This is, quite frankly, the best book Neil Gaiman has ever written. How he has managed to combine fascinating, friendly, frightening and fearsome in one fantasy I shall never know, but he has pulled it off magnificently - perfect for Halloween and any other time of the year.” — Diana Wynne Jones, author of The Chronicles of Chrestomanci

“I wish my younger self could have had the opportunity to read and re-read this wonderful book, and my older self wishes that I had written it.” — Garth Nix, author of The Abhorsen Trilogy

“It takes a graveyard to raise a child. My favorite thing about this book was watching Bod grow up in his fine crumbly graveyard with his dead and living friends. The Graveyard Book is another surprising and terrific book from Neil Gaiman.” — Audrey Niffenegger, author of The Time Traveler's Wife

“After finishing The Graveyard Book, I had only one thought  I hope there’s more. I want to see more of the adventures of Nobody Owens, and there is no higher praise for a book.” — Laurell K. Hamilton, author of the Anita Blake: Vampire Hunter novels

“The Graveyard Book is endlessly inventive, masterfully told and, like Bod himself, too clever to fit into only one place. This is a book for everyone. You will love it to death.” — Holly Black, cocreator of The Spiderwick Chronicles

“The Graveyard Book manages the remarkable feat of playing delightful jazz riffs on Kipling’s classic Jungle Books. One might call this book a small jewel, but in fact it’s much bigger within than it looks from the outside.” — Peter S. Beagle, author of The Last Unicorn

The Graveyard Book is everything everyone loves about Neil Gaiman, only multiplied many times over, a novel that showcases his effortless feel for narrative, his flawless instincts for suspense, and above all, his dark, almost silky sense of humor. — Joe Hill, author of HeartShaped Box

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